Nordic Countries - English in Finland?

Hello, my travels may be taking me to some smaller towns in Finland in September and I was just curious about the level of English spoken in the countryside there.

I will probably be making some bus transfers etc in some smaller towns and just wondering if I would have much difficulty getting by without speaking any Finnish. I've been to Helsinki and found the people there to have excellent language skills (Swedish + English seemed very common) but I wasn't sure how things were in smaller towns beyond HEL/TKU etc. I'll learn some phrases in advance per usual, but figured I would ask the board here

Thanks for your help,

Hello, my travels may be taking me to some smaller towns in Finland in September and I was just curious about the level of English spoken in the countryside there.

I will probably be making some bus transfers etc in some smaller towns and just wondering if I would have much difficulty getting by without speaking any Finnish. I've been to Helsinki and found the people there to have excellent language skills (Swedish + English seemed very common) but I wasn't sure how things were in smaller towns beyond HEL/TKU etc. I'll learn some phrases in advance per usual, but figured I would ask the board here

Thanks for your help,

Older people are less likely to speak any/decent English - or even Swedish for that matter -- in the remote countryside compared to small town younger people who are more likely to speak some/better English and Swedish. Either way, you'll probably manage to get by as a tourist even on buses around Finland without speaking Finnish, but the valiant effort at Finnish and a Finnish-English dictionary is worth it if only having no one around and having to translate for yourself when dealing with inanimate objects like schedules, machines, etc.

Most people in Finland speak so much English that you should be ok. We have TV in English with subtitles, so people have learnt English watching "The Bold and the Beautiful", "Emmerdale", "Knight Rider", "MacGyver" and other quality series ;)

If you go way up to some distant corner of Lapland you might find people who don't speak English at all, otherwise you should be fine.

Thank you for the fast responses and it sounds like I should be okay.

I will post a followup here after my trip.

Hello, my travels may be taking me to some smaller towns in Finland in September and I was just curious about the level of English spoken in the countryside there.

I will probably be making some bus transfers etc in some smaller towns and just wondering if I would have much difficulty getting by without speaking any Finnish. I've been to Helsinki and found the people there to have excellent language skills (Swedish + English seemed very common) but I wasn't sure how things were in smaller towns beyond HEL/TKU etc. I'll learn some phrases in advance per usual, but figured I would ask the board here

Thanks for your help,

You'll be fine. People in their 40's and younger understand at least some English no matter where in Finland you are and many speak it quite passably. Besides, the smaller the town, the friendlier the people.

Don't worry, be happy.

Cheers,
T.

I lived for a few months in Jakobstad/Pietarsaari about 16 years ago. My combination of Swedish and English worked perfectly fine for me, and as was posted earlier, those 40ish and younger will not have much trouble in English. If you do have trouble just look for a teenager/20something and they'll probably be thrilled to speak English with someone. Plus it helped that my English was actually 'American' (as opposed to 'British'), it was fun for at least the kids to speak with someone that sounded like the TV shows...

As a followup, I found the advice in this thread to be 100% correct.

Basically anyone under age 40 spoke plenty of English, beyond that it was more of a mixed bag. I took some multi-transfer bus routes and had zero issues. Even in cases where the driver or cashier didn't speak English, I could either communicate just fine anyhow or there was someone nearby who was fluent. No trouble at all in small towns, various restaurants, hotels, taxis etc.

I appreciate everyone's responses.

Most people in Finland speak so much English that you should be ok. We have TV in English with subtitles, so people have learnt English watching "The Bold and the Beautiful", "Emmerdale", "Knight Rider", "MacGyver" and other quality series ;)

If you go way up to some distant corner of Lapland you might find people who don't speak English at all, otherwise you should be fine.

Macgyver would just create a Finish/English translator out of a stick of gum if he needed to! :p Sorry I couldn't resist..
Cheers
Howie

Wirelessly posted (beckoa's PWP wonderous device: BlackBerry9000/5.0.0.1067 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102)

Good to hear- sounds like I'll be there for 5 days during the first week o' May :cool:

English in Scandinavia is generally no problem at all. Even in rural areas most people under the age of 60 will speak okey English. At least that is true for Norway.